Promising Arthritis Research
The University of Rochester has the best orthopedic basic science program in the country. They are number one in NIH funding in orthopedics and have been doing some amazing things. My brother (also an orthopedic surgeon) did residency there. They have a large team of researchers led by 3 true clinician-scientists. They literally spend half of the year in the lab and half doing clinical work - very rare in this era.
PTH (parathyroid hormone) is a naturally occuring hormone in the body which typically reabsorbs calcium from bones. Recently it’s been found that if PTH is given in pulsed dosing, it can actually regrow bone. The reason this is so amazing is that most osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax, only STOP further bone loss.
This latest study looked at the effect that PTH had on cartilage in mice. They found that PTH may protect or even build back damaged cartilage. If this finding can be translated from mice to human (a not insignificant if), it holds the potential to significantly change the course of the disease. To give some perspective, approximately 400,000 knee replacements and 250,000 hip replacements are performed every year in the U.S. alone. Everyone knows someone with arthritis. This is exciting stuff.
